Edtay

Introduction:



Its been over a year since I bought my 1st Porsche 944 (4/10/2011) and I feel like its a good time to finally introduce myself and tell the story so far of my ownership of it. I found the Porsche behind the local Subaru/Nissan Dealership. It was beat up, abused, but I couldn't pass up that car. I contacted the owner of it and we went for a drive. A few days later, I took it to a local shop for them to look at it and nothing major popped up for repairs. When I left the shop, the owner handed me his business card and said "no Porsche is cheap" with a grin on his face but pointed me in the way of the local german car club. When I joined that club, 3rdGen contacted me and he helped me out with where to begin with the 944. I also was told to join here. I spent my summer just cleaning up the car and making it look better. It was around Thanksgiving last year it started an odd idle and the car was starting to shake majorly yet I wasn't in a situation to fix it. Just thinking the car had a vacuum leak, I checked everywhere and plugged up my idle control screw (some how it disappeared). This bought me some precious time and I got through the majority of winter. Yet after filling up on a friday morning (2/3/2012) the Porsche wouldn't start. So, I left the car in the gas station parking lot and told them I would be back later to pick it up. I got back that night to see it and it started right up on the first shot. It felt awful but I just kept it in "limp home" mode and drove it a block or two down to my work. Next morning I came back to it with a friend who also had a 944 (RedRose on here i believe) and it would start but there was a weird sound coming from the back of the head (near the firewall). RedRose followed me down to my mechanic's and we left it there for him to deal with on monday morning. When I stopped by i found out my 4th cyl was loosing compression and I was quoted with $3,500 to fix it. I paid him what i owed and took the 944 home. Jump ahead a month or two, RedRose was hit by a drunk driver and was looking to get rid of his 944. I bought it off of him and this is where the project began...

Projekt:


After reading up on the swap i heard that there were two ways to remove the 2.5L motor. First it "can" go out the top and second being that it can be removed from the bottom. We (3rdGen and I) decided to try the idea of removing from the top on the donor car and see if that was a good idea for the good car.





When removing it from the top there was a snag... The crank pulley got pinned and the engine could not be moved. There will be a good chance of bending that hood pin receiver area if you go this route.

First motor is out:


Time for removing the second motor. I will attest to going out the bottom being easier. I was doing this in a driveway with basic tools, anyone can do it if I can.

Sliding out the motor was probably the worse part of going out the bottom.

Time to clean up for the new motor:

Before:

After:


Now that the donor motor was out, I took aim at front seals, RMS, oil pan gasket, waterpump and timing belt. First snag was the over torqued Crank Pulley... This is what it did to a 5 foot steel pipe being used as an extension for my breaker bar:


After we got that and all the rest of the over torqued pulleys off, it was time for the Waterpump. It also seemed to be mounted with over torqued bolts/nuts and this happened:

Now i had those removed by a local machinist and then sent the motor to my mechanic for him to finish up the seals. He hit another snag and this bolt seemed to disappear.

In the meantime ive finished the wheels, swapped from an all black interior to black/tan and swapped rear glass (so it now has tint). Hopefully in the next week or so Ill have an update. Thank you for a place to document this build plus sticking it out and reading all this

pops 83 944

Very nice!! Good luck

mytrplseven

I'm sure that when you're done, it'll be as solid and as much fun as you imagine it will be. Great place to start (donor car is a plus). Keep us posted.

AlphaOmegaPower

Looking good. What year is it? Also if you have the car without the motor take a couple of pics of inside the bay....particularly the horns which I need to fix haha. How long did it take you guys to pull and install?

ditch68

Thanks for the post! Looks good. I actually think it is just one more cool and unusual thing about these cars that the engine comes out the bottom most easily., if that makes sense...


I really wish I had a parts car. I should find one, it would be worth it. I think. But then I would get delusions of grandeur and try to build a track car out of it.

Jeff

Edtay

Both of em are 1986s. 3rdGen wanted me to finally get around to posting this. Im not sure how many hours it took cuz this was my first time pulling a motor and i would work on it whenever i had the time. Im still waiting on my mechanic to finish up the seals (I'm still in school or id be doing it) but ill time the reinstall. Ill keep you guys posted.

@Omega: ill take pics for yah. what do yah need to fix with em? (Wiring im assuming)

Edtay

@Ditch, i dont think the donor will be racing anytime soon...


It took 3 crowbars, 3lb hammer, a strong flat head screw driver (to sheer out the lock mechanism) and polt cutters to open that door. I believe the quote to fix the donor car was 8-12k haha

AlphaOmegaPower

Well I have my N/A on stands for brakes and wheel bearings but have to get the heat, fans and horn next. Actually JUST found out where the horn was when I pulled the brakes of the drivers side. lol
Also any grounds in the engine bay if they are still there. Need more pics on things like Clarks Garage in my opinion. Maybe some pics are hard to get idk. But yes that would be great if you could.

Edtay

Will take em for yah atleast the best I can. The red one has most wiring disconnected so I'll have to look on the donor.

thirdgenbird

Other than one 98 degree day, text support, and a few tools edtay did most of this himself. Not bad for a high school student. I wish I started wrenching at that age...

You should throw some interior pics up.

thirdgenbird

It should also be noted that he overcame quite a few chalanges. Bolts that came right out of my car were rusted and/or stripped on his car. It looks like a lot of the previous repairs were carelessly done with air tools. I expect good things when this car gets back on the road.

Sentinelist

Dang. Uber-props! While rebuilds aren't exactly uncommon, it's always cool to see one going down. Especially by one of the younger amongst us! You've got more ***** than I to pull a motor. I'm worried enough as it is about redoing my head this winter.

Edtay

As 3rdGen hinted at: I am a 17yr old. I didnt want to reveal my age til once this project was done and I had some accomplishments to put with my name. Other than the help/advice I got from 3rd; I taught, tooled, and funded myself.

@Sentinelist: haha, i have no other options at this point but thanks

@3rd: Youre going to have to wait on the pics... You wont see it till either the 944 is done and/or at your place. Sorry but i want some suspense with this project.

ditch68

Awesome! I was like you at 17, had my first car, and several after that were hot rods, Chevelles, Camaros, GTO, etc. And VW offroad cars. I spent every extra minute reading "Hot Rod" magazines, and my dad was very much into racing - on a NASCAR Grand National pit crew (what is/was the "Busch series" later), he had drag cars, etc.

I jumped right in at an early age, and am still a total car nut at 44!

I'm really glad to see so many young guys on this forum.

Jeff

Edtay

Thanks Jeff, I wanted to give the young guys on this forum a better reputation. I wish my dad was into racing, let alone into cars but oh well, Im still here wrenching. I doubt I'm going to kick this addiction anytime soon.

Btw: fitting age for driving a 944, huh?